director Justin Baldoni sued The New York Times for libel on Tuesday over its story on and sought to smear the reputation of the film's star, .
The lawsuit seeking at least $250 million was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, the next major move in a growing story that has made major waves in Hollywood. It alleges the Times and Lively coordinated a smear campaign against Baldoni and his nine fellow plaintiffs.
The Times stood by its reporting and said it plans to 鈥渧igorously defend鈥� against the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs include the film's lead producer Jamey Heath, its production company Wayfarer Studios, and crisis communications expert Melissa Nathan, whose text message was quoted in the headline of the Dec. 21 Times story: 鈥溾�榃e Can Bury Anyone鈥�: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine."
Written by Megan Twohey, Mike McIntire and Julie Tate, the story was published just after Lively filed a legal complaint that is usually a predecessor to a lawsuit with the California Civil Rights Department over her alleged treatment.
Both her legal complaint and the Times story allege Baldoni enlisted publicists and crisis managers in a plan to destroy Lively鈥檚 reputation if she went public with her on-set concerns.
Baldoni's lawsuit says the newspaper 鈥渞elied almost entirely on Lively鈥檚 unverified and self-serving narrative, lifting it nearly verbatim while disregarding an abundance of evidence that contradicted her claims and exposed her true motives. But the Times did not care.鈥�
A spokesperson for the Times, Danielle Rhoades, said in a statement that 鈥渙ur was meticulously and responsibly reported."
鈥淚t was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including the text messages and emails that we quote accurately and at length in the article. To date, Wayfarer Studios, Mr. Baldoni, the other subjects of the article and their representatives have not pointed to a single error," the statement said.
But the lawsuit says that 鈥淚f the Times truly reviewed the thousands of private communications it claimed to have obtained, its reporters would have seen incontrovertible evidence that it was Lively, not Plaintiffs, who engaged in a calculated smear campaign.鈥�
Lively is not a defendant in the lawsuit. Her lawyers said in a statement that 鈥淣othing in this lawsuit changes anything about the claims advanced in Ms. Lively鈥檚 California Civil Rights Department Complaint.鈥�
The romantic drama 鈥淚t Ends With Us,鈥� an adaptation of , was released in August, with a $50 million debut. But the movie鈥檚 release was shrouded by speculation over discord between Lively and Baldoni. Baldoni took a backseat in promoting the film while Lively took centerstage along with her husband Ryan Reynolds, who was on the press circuit for at the same time.
Lively came to fame through the 2005 film 鈥淭he Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,鈥� and bolstered her stardom on the TV series 鈥淕ossip Girl鈥� from 2007 to 2012. She has since starred in films including 鈥淭he Town鈥� and 鈥淭he Shallows.鈥�
Baldoni starred in the TV comedy directed the 2019 film 鈥淔ive Feet Apart鈥� and wrote 鈥淢an Enough,鈥� a book pushing back against traditional notions of masculinity. He responded to concerns that 鈥淚t Ends With Us鈥� romanticized domestic violence, at the time that critics were 鈥渁bsolutely entitled to that opinion.鈥�
He was dropped by his agency, WME, immediately after Lively filed her complaint and the Times published its story.
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Associated Press writer Ryan Pearson contributed to this story.
Andrew Dalton, The Associated Press
